Forging America’s Fuel Henry Cottle registered the first mining claim in what would become northern Hot Springs County in the late 1880s. Henry Monro and Frank Porter’s Cedar Mountain “Cowboy Mine” followed in 1898. In 1906, Burlington Railroad built its southbound line from Billings, Montana to Frannie and Worland, Wyoming. The route was, in no small part, because of the quality and quantity of coal near Kirby. With a rail contract for a twenty-mile extension, Mormon pioneer Jesse W. Crosby, Jr. filed his mining claim in 1910. Naturally, more entrepreneurs followed, including Samuel Gebo. The coal camps of Gebo and Crosby were born, forming a significant coal district that nurtured a true melting pot of nationalities. Author Lea Cavalli Schoenewald recounts the area’s heyday and the lives that powered its development. Forging Americaís Fuel Lea Cavalli Schoenewald has taught a variety of subjects in four Wyoming school districts for thirty-five years. She authored Polished Corners of the Temple Wall , garnering awards from Wyoming Writers Inc. and the Albany County Historical Society. She also coauthored an updated history of Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming with her husband, Thomas. She contributed to the Casper Star-Tribune’s “They Served with Honor: Vietnam” and has presented programs to numerous county historical societies and museums throughout Wyoming.